Time Courses of Cortical Vestibular Responses to Caloric Stimulation (fMRI)

The multisensory vestibular cortical circuit on the basis of monkey experiments as well as human functional brain imaging studies includes the posterior insula, central sulcus, superior temporal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule with the intraparietal sulcus. The aim of this fMRI study was to determine whether one can differentiate the time course of activation of different vestibular and ocular motor areas. Ocular motor areas were considered since vestibular stimulation induces not only the perception of being rotated or tilted but also an ocular motor response, e.g. a vestibular nystagmus. The effects of cal…